1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and, in particular, to a method, system, and computer program product for optimizing performance in a data processing system. Still more particularly, the present invention provides a method, system, and computer program product for identifying and tracking electronic mail campaigns.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the Internet has matured, so has electronic mail, which is also referred to as e-mail. In particular, the content, layout, and architecture of e-mail have significantly improved over time. E-mail has become richer in terms of its ability to convey a message as it can blend together audio, video, artwork, and other content. E-mail can contain a combination of items, including attached files and hyperlinks. The files may contain text, video, audio, graphics, and other rich content. The hyperlinks may contain links to a network such as the Internet, an intranet or an extranet. Due to these capabilities, in the 21st century e-mail is preferred by over 93 percent of U.S. based Internet users as the communication medium of choice.
As the reach of the Internet grows and e-mail as a communications medium becomes more prolific, newsletter authors, advertisers, and marketers alike are trying to leverage this new channel and extend their reach on a daily basis. As savvy marketers attempt to extend their reach and tap into a global economy, e-mail based marketing campaigns rank number one as a vehicle of choice. E-mail is fast, inexpensive, and reliable for reaching the large masses, especially when compared to methods such as outbound call centers or direct mail. E-mail also has the capability of delivering targeted and customized messaging to specific audiences. As a result, e-mail campaigns cover the full range from product and service announcements to business partnerships and beyond.
Problems with the ability to track or identify e-mail readership over time include knowing if a reader ever opened and read the message, which hyperlinks were most popular, and which attachments were opened most often. E-mail authors need this information to improve the effectiveness of future e-mail campaigns. Given the significant amounts of investments being made in e-mail based campaigns and newsletters, a number of methods exist in the commercial world to address hypertext markup language (HTML) based e-mails. Tracking of e-mail is fundamentally achieved by incorporating a probe or some mechanism within the e-mail whereby the e-mail can be tracked and the readership identified. In most situations, e-mail is typically created using HTML or text and delivered as multipurpose Internet mail extensions (MIME) based e-mail. The simplest way to track HTML formatted e-mail is by the inclusion of a reference to an external image, typically 1 pixel wide. The loading of the image by a web browser causes a small amount of code to be executed. Such code, typically written in JavaScript® language, has the capability of capturing the desired information about the e-mail, allowing e-mail authors to track and report on usage.
In contrast, Lotus Notes® based e-mail presents an interesting challenge because an e-mail generated by Lotus Notes® is typically non-HTML based and it is not simple text. Lotus Notes® is a rich and complex system, allowing for the inclusion of graphics, audio, video, complex tables, and other content. But Lotus Notes® does not provide for a mechanism to track and identify unique or repeat readers of any e-mail. Currently, no solution is available that allows native Lotus Notes® based e-mails to be automatically tracked and reported on.
Many of the world's largest corporations use Lotus Notes® as their e-mail of choice. A solution to track and report on Lotus Notes® based e-mail benefits any enterprise looking for response rates to campaigns and gives e-mail authors the ability to measure readership for any e-mail, whether it be part of a formal campaign, executive communication, team event, or some significant occurrence.
The Lotus Notes® Client is a highly secure client. It is not easy for an e-mail author to customize or alter a given corporation's mail template as templates are highly protected. Another problem involves the ability to insert any type of probe or tracking mechanism into e-mail created by the Lotus Notes® Client. Any inclusion or introduction of a probe has to be done in such a manner so as to preserve the authenticity of the e-mail message and ensure that any actions by the probe or tracking mechanism remain totally transparent to the recipient and within the security features enabled by the Lotus Notes® Client.
E-mail campaigns created by Lotus Notes® usually contain links to websites, or hyperlinks. The intent of most e-mail campaigns is to try to get the reader of any given e-mail to select the links within the e-mail and subsequently visit the linked website. The creation of a hyperlink or hotspot is what facilitates its selection, typically using a mouse to click on the hyperlink or hotspot. Assuming uniform resource locator (URL) hyperlinks within a given e-mail are tagged or instrumented, a subsequent problem is the tracking and reporting of any of the various types of URL hyperlinks.
A technical problem is the absence of a convenient mechanism or published applications program interface (API) to directly access hotspots and hyperlinks that exist within an e-mail created by Lotus Notes®. Furthermore, such a mechanism or API has to address issues of security and transparency, and also be capable of tagging all of the objects that could be used to generate hotspots and hyperlinks. These and other features of Lotus Notes® are not currently found in markup language based e-mail, making it more difficult to track the usage of this type of e-mail.